Spiritual awakening through Yoga

Everything we have done in our life so far has been in pursuit of a single thing: joy. If we had been born as any other creature on this planet, it would have been very simple. Our needs would have just been physical. A full stomach would have been equivalent to a great day.

But when we came into this world as human beings, things changed. As soon as the problem of hunger gets resolved, an infinite other problems arise. For a human being, life doesn't seem to end with survival, life begins with survival.

If we see today's generation, our survival process is better organised than it was before. We can buy or get anything we need even without stepping out of our house, this was never possible before. We are the most comfortable generation to have ever lived on this planet. But are we the most joyful? The most loving? Or the most peaceful?

No. We are not. We tried our best to fix the outside world. But still, we are not happier than our ancestors. This is because we focused all our energy to make to outside world a better place to live in and totally forgot about our inside world, our own self. The happiness, the joy, the love, the peace- all of it which comes from inside rather than outside. We never thought of connecting ourselves, rather we invested our time on connecting with the world. Just sit down and think how much of a day do you spend with your significant other and how much do you spend with yourself? We are constantly trying to please others, trying to make them happy, making their lives better but what are we exactly doing for ourselves?

More importantly, why do we need to know ourselves? This question can be well answered by saying- why don’t we need to know ourselves. If we don’t know ourselves then how do we know what we need? This is one of the biggest reasons for our infinite number of needs. Our needs are not really our needs, it’s someone else’s need and we are surrounded by a lot of people and eventually everyone’s need becomes our need. If we don’t know what we need, in the end we will fulfil all the needs that are unnecessary at the first place and thus toxify ourselves. It’s the same as planting parasitic plants in crops.

One of the greatest ways to know oneself or the process of spiritual awakening can be achieved through the practice of yoga. Yoga by definition as an art, as well as a science. It is a science, because it offers practical methods for controlling body and mind, thereby making deep meditation possible. And it is an art, for unless it is practiced intuitively and sensitively it will yield only superficial results - Paramhansa Yogananda.

Yoga is not merely meant for a perfect body or it’s not merely breathing exercises or asnas. It’s something greater than that, it’s something magically beautiful. Yoga helps you know yourself, helps with the union of mind, spirit and the body.  Yoga teaches compassion, patience, persistence, self-belief, dedication kindness and much more. Humans have enormous amount of trapped energy inside of them and yoga helps with the identification of that energy.

It can be done through meditation. Meditation can be from 5 minutes to 5 hours. It all depends on practice. Meditation can be done by simply closing eyes and focusing your attention span on one single thing- for example, on breathing or ex-raying your inner body organs, trying to feel the blood flowing through your veins, imagining how your body is functioning and trying to feel it. Initially it might seem impossible to focus so much on a particular thing but it gets easier with practice, patience and time.

Another way is through kundalini Yoga.  The practice of Kundalini Yoga is supposed to arouse the sleeping Shakti from its coiled base through the six chakras that reside along the spine, and through the seventh chakra, or crown. Chakras are wheels, or hubs of energy, along which energy travels like a superhighway to distribute energy throughout the body. The kriyas and meditations in Kundalini Yoga are designed to raise complete body awareness to prepare the body, nervous system, and the mind to handle the energy of Kundalini rising. Many of the physical postures are designed to activate the naval, spine, and focal points of pressurization on meridians (energy points). Through breath work (pranayama) and the application of yogic locks of energy (bandhas), the release, direction, and the control of the flow of Kundalini energy is achieved. The technique of alternate nostril breathing (left nostril, right nostril) which is known as a simple breathing technique, is one of these often- utilized techniques.

Garima Sharma 

Aman Raj